GREAT FALLS — From the surface, Montana’s lakes and rivers may appear pristine — but just below, hidden trash paints a different picture. Fortunately, one group is diving in to help, and they’re finding healing along the way.
JAMES ROLIN REPORTS – WATCH:
Underwater Soldiers help clean Montana’s waterways and their souls
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Service, Submerged: Veterans Take on Waterway Pollution
Underwater Soldiers, a non-profit based in Great Falls, is made up of certified SCUBA-diving military veterans who volunteer their time to clean Montana waterways. Their most recent cleanup at Gates of the Mountains marked a record-breaking haul.
“This is the most trash we’ve picked up to date,” said Mike Lukas, co-founder of Underwater Soldiers Great Falls Chapter. “So congratulations, everyone. Give yourselves a hand.”
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Trash enters Montana’s waterways through runoff, rain, or littering — and it accumulates in hard-to-reach areas. Volunteers recovered hundreds of pounds of debris, including unusual finds like metal rails, pipes, a toilet, and even a large carpet.
“It’s always a puzzle,” said diver Daniel Hurd. “What does this even go to? Who knows?”
More Than Cleanup: Diving as Therapy
For these veterans, the mission is about more than trash. Many members of Underwater Soldiers have faced physical injuries and emotional trauma. SCUBA diving offers them an unexpected but powerful form of therapy.
“I was not the type that wanted to get out,” said Hurd, a former Army Ranger who was medically retired after a Stryker vehicle accident. “Alcoholism took over my life… and I’ve been sober now for six years.”
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SCUBA diving helps veterans regain purpose and accountability.
“If you want to do well underwater, you’ve got to make sure your stuff is working. It creates that self-accountability again,” Hurd explained. “All of a sudden you’re checking in with a teammate… it’s familiar turf.”
Support That Extends to Families
The organization also brings together veterans’ families, creating a community where healing extends beyond the dive site. After a hard day of work, volunteers share food, laughter, and connection.
“He talks to people. He’s talking to you with the camera — and that wouldn’t have happened without Underwater Soldiers,” said Starlette Hurd, Daniel’s wife. “That’s a fact.”
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Breathing Life Back In
Underwater Soldiers is helping restore both Montana’s waters and Montana’s veterans, one dive at a time.
“Feeling like a soldier that couldn’t breathe in the world I lived in… all of a sudden Mike and them taught me how I could breathe underwater,” Hurd said. “And that was, oh man — yeah. I can breathe in life again.”
Are you or someone you know a military veteran or current servicemember suffering from PTSD? You can contact UWS on Facebook here or at the organization’s main website here.
And if you’ve ever wondered where the term SCUBA comes from – it’s an acronym for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.
The No. 2 seed Montana State Bobcats (23-6) will square off against the No. 8 seed Montana Lady Griz (9-21) in the Big Sky tournament Sunday at Idaho Central Arena, tipping off at 4:30 p.m. ET.
How to watch Montana Lady Griz vs. Montana State Bobcats
Stats to know
Montana State averages 74.8 points per game (42nd in college basketball) while allowing 60.9 per contest (101st in college basketball). It has a +403 scoring differential overall and outscores opponents by 13.9 points per game.
Montana State makes 7.5 three-pointers per game (61st in college basketball) at a 29.4% rate (244th in college basketball), compared to the 6.7 its opponents make while shooting 32.9% from deep.
Montana has a -270 scoring differential, falling short by 9.0 points per game. It is putting up 62.2 points per game, 252nd in college basketball, and is allowing 71.2 per outing to rank 310th in college basketball.
Montana hits 2.2 more threes per game than the opposition, 9.2 (12th in college basketball) compared to its opponents’ 7.0.
This watch guide was created using technology provided by Data Skrive.
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Photo: Patrick Smith, Andy Lyons, Steph Chambers, Jamie Squire / Getty Images
BOISE, Idaho — It became clear at about 1 p.m. Saturday that Avery Waddington, Montana’s second leading scorer and top rebounder — would not play in the first round of the Big Sky Conference tournament at Idaho Central Arena.
Waddington was battling the onset of an illness since earlier in the morning that neither rest nor fluids could quell. Another starter — Jocelyn Land — wasn’t feeling her best, either, nor were two Lady Griz assistant coaches.
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Depleted Montana edges NAU, sets up 2nd-round rematch with Montana State at Big Sky tourney
Some kind of bug had infiltrated the Montana women’s basketball team. But coach Nate Harris and the remaining Lady Griz weren’t about to bug out of the postseason, and went on to claim a 61-60 victory over Northern Arizona to keep their season intact.
No. 8-seeded Montana (9-21) advanced to secure a matchup with No. 2 seed and rival Montana State (23-6) in a Big Sky second-round game on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
“We just made it about, how hard can you play?” said Harris, who pumped his fist and celebrated with his team after NAU’s final shot rimmed off at the buzzer. “Everyone in here can defend their tail off, so let’s just get out there and guard, guard, guard and see if we can have one more point than the other team.”
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Harris’ words proved to be prophetic. Montana won by surviving a last-second shot by Northern Arizona’s Naomi White, an attempt she had to work hard to create after taking an inbound pass with less than three seconds left.
With the way they bowed out of last year’s Big Sky tournament — on a last-second shot by Montana State’s Marah Dykstra in the championship game — the Lady Griz were grateful to be on the other end of the drama.
“There have been situations where that memory has kind of come up (this season) and made me really nervous, and definitely today was one of them,” UM’s Mack Konig said. “However, you learn from your mistakes, and I think our team was prepared to play until the very end, so that was great.”
Greg Rachac / MTN Sports
Montana’s Joclyn Land drives during a game against Northern Arizona at the Big Sky Conference women’s basketball tournament at Idaho Central Arena on Saturday, March 7, 2026, in Boise, Idaho.
After gutting it out in the first half, Montana’s Land left the game in the second half due to her malaise. But Konig scored a team-high 17 points and Rae Ehrman added 16 to pace the Lady Griz. Kennedy Gillette contributed 15 points and nine rebounds.
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NAU’s White led all scorers with 24 points while hitting 10 of 10 from the foul line.
As Harris stated, defense did the trick for the Lady Griz. With that as a focus, and with players defending out of position, notably Gillette, Konig and Macy Donarski in the post, Montana held the Lumberjacks to 31.7% shooting and a 5-for-20 showing from 3-point range. White, one of the league’s best players, shot 6-for-22 from the floor.
The Lady Griz are moving on to a rematch with Montana State in the second round. The Bobcats won both regular-season matchups by an average of 27.5 points. Throw in the memory of last year’s title-game chaos, and it’s a matchup Montana is looking forward to.
“It just makes us really excited for (Sunday),” Gillette said. “Chloe (Larsen) said in the locker room that it’s hard to beat a team three times, so that kind of gives us some juice. We know what we need to do and what to focus on.”
“It’s not a hard answer, right?” Harris said. “You have to take care of the rock, you have to rebound and you have to match, if not exceed, their level of toughness. I think today was a great lesson moving into that game.”
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Big Sky women’s tournament scoreboard
Saturday, March 7
Game 1: No. 9 Weber State 76, No. 10 Portland State 53
A sign marks the entrance to a series of hardened tents at the Camp East Montana immigrant detention center in the desert at a U.S. Army base on the outskirts of El Paso, Texas, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. Morgan Lee/AP
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This story contains discussion of suicide. If you or someone you care about may be at risk of suicide, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988, or go to 988lifeline.org.
Staff at the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility have placed bets on which detainee will be the next to die by suicide, according to new reporting from the Associated Press based on 911 calls and detainee accounts.
Owen Ramsingh, a legal permanent resident who spent several weeks at the Camp East Montana detention facility in Texas, told AP that he overheard a security guard talking about a betting pool for which detainee would next die by suicide. The guard said he had paid $500 into the pot, which would all go to the winner with the most accurate predictions on detainees harming themselves.
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Without providing details, the Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told AP that Ramsingh, who was brought to the US at age 5 from the Netherlands, was lying about the suicide bets.
In January, staff at Camp East Montana called 911 to request emergency help for Geraldo Lunas Campos, a 55-year-old from Cuba. DHS described his death as an attempted suicide. A medical examiner later ruled it a homicide. That same month, staff at the detention facility called 911 to report that a 36-year-old Nicaraguan man died by suicide. The AP reports that “detainees attempted to harm themselves while expressing suicidal ideations on at least six other occasions that resulted in 911 calls.”
Once the site of an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II, Camp East Montana is made up of six long tents at the Fort Bliss Army base outside of El Paso. On an average day, the facility holds around 3,000 detainees who are living in harsh conditions: They lack sufficient food and often go without proper medical care, according to AP’s review of 130 calls made to 911. Those calls took place in just about five months—from when the tents were quickly constructed in mid-August to January 20.
“Every day felt like a week. Every week felt like a month. Every month felt like a year,”Ramsingh said. He lived in Columbia, Missouri before being stopped at the airport by DHS and sent to Camp East Montana last year. Despite holding a green card and being married to a US citizen, he was deported to the Netherlands in February over a drug conviction from when he was a teenager (which he served prison time for). “Camp East Montana was 1,000% worse than a prison,” Ramsingh added.
Ramsingh said that the alledged bets on who would die by suicide were especially difficult because he had contemplated suicide himself.
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While ICE data shows that the average stay at the tents is around nine days, detainees can be stuck at the camp for months as the courts struggle to accommodate President Donald Trump’s mass detainment and deportation campaign.
US House Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents part of El Paso and has toured Camp East Montana, told AP that the facility “should not be operational.”
“It feels like this contractor is reinventing the wheel,” she said, “ and people are losing their lives in their experiment.”
